video too large for WhatsApp
WhatsApp's 100MB media cap blocks bigger files. Use Compress Video to bring your video under the limit while keeping it readable.
It's one of the most-searched questions on the topic: a video just over the WhatsApp attachment limit, and you have to send it now.
WhatsApp's hard cap is 100MB per outgoing message. Anything bigger gets rejected — sometimes silently, more often after you've waited 30 seconds for the upload bar to crawl. The fix is to bring the video below that threshold before you hit Attach.
Run it in your browser: Compress Video — Everything happens locally in your browser — your file never leaves your device.
Why this happens
Videos grow for predictable reasons — embedded images at full camera resolution, fonts shipped twice, scanned pages saved at 600 DPI, video clips that were never meant for email. The original was fine for archiving, but it isn't shaped for email. What follows works in every modern browser.
How to bring a video under 100MB
- Open Compress Video in any modern browser. Nothing installs.
- Drag the video onto the drop zone. Multiple files work too; Compress Video processes them in a single pass.
- Pick a compression preset. "Balanced" is the right answer 95% of the time — visually identical output, file size cut by 50–80%.
- Wait for processing — usually under five seconds for a video smaller than 50MB.
- Download the result. It lands in your default downloads folder under the original filename, suffixed.
- Attach the smaller version to WhatsApp and send. The size badge in the attachment row should now read well below 100MB.
If you have a stack of videos to send to the same person, drop them in together — Compress Video handles a batch in one click, then you attach the whole folder.
What if it's still too big?
A few videos resist compression — usually because they're already aggressively compressed, or they're video / audio at high bitrate. Two reliable next moves:
- Trim or split. If the video is content-rich, sending half today and half tomorrow often beats forcing it into one attachment.
- Switch to a cloud link. Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and WeTransfer all give you a copy-paste link that bypasses every mail provider's cap.
Launch the tool
Free, no account required, no watermark.
Frequently asked questions
What's the maximum I should attach to WhatsApp, in practice?
Stay 10–15% under the hard cap. WhatsApp's 100MB is the wire limit, but base64 encoding inflates the body by ~33%. Headroom prevents the "rejected after 30 seconds" failure mode.
Why does WhatsApp reject files over 100MB?
It's a server-side rule, not a client setting. WhatsApp lifted the document cap to 100MB in 2022. Media (photos / video) still has lower per-asset limits.
Does Compress Video upload my video to a server?
No. Compress Video runs entirely in your browser using WebAssembly. The video never leaves your device — there is no server to send it to.
Is there a way to do this from my phone?
Yes — open Compress Video in mobile Safari or Chrome and drop the video from your photo library or Files app. The flow is identical to desktop, just with bigger taps.
Related guides
- How to send a video larger than 25MB through Gmail
- video for government and visa portal uploads
- Why won't my video get smaller? Fixing the 4 most common causes
- Compress Video: beginner's step-by-step guide
- meta tag too large for WhatsApp — the Open Graph Preview fix in under a minute
- image too large for WhatsApp — the Document Scanner fix in under a minute
Ready to try it?
Run it in your browser: Compress Video. Browser-only. Nothing is sent to a server.
Last reviewed May 2026. File-size limits, portal requirements, and software defaults change over time — always verify with the destination platform before uploading time-sensitive documents. References to third-party services and products are for descriptive purposes only and do not imply any partnership or endorsement.